Castlereagh Break-in 'Frustrating', Says Orde

The outgoing PSNI Chief Constable has said he is "frustrated" that the case against Larry Zaitschek collapsed.

Sir Hugh Orde was commenting today in a BBC Radio Ulster interview on the collapse of the case against an American chef wanted over the hugely damaging Castlereagh Special Branch office break-in.

However, he made it clear that he had no problem supplying any necessary material to the defence - and said that the material being withheld was from another agency - implying that it might possibly be MI5 or other security agency.

The Public Prosecution Service said last Friday that the extradition of Larry Zaitschek from New York over the 2002 robbery would not go ahead because not "all intelligence material could be disclosed to the defence".

There was a risk he would not get a fair trial as a consequence.

Orde revealed that the failure to disclose was due to the risk to life and human rights of people other than the US chef who had worked in Castlereagh at the time of the break-in.

He said it was not the first time such a situation had arisen.

"That's my real frustration because we can't talk in detail about these cases because of competing human rights basically, other people's rights to life," he said.

Intelligence material kept secret had nothing to do with the PSNI and he was holding nothing back, he insisted.

"What I can say is that there is nothing within my intelligence systems that I was not prepared to release to enable a fair trial to take place.

"There is a clue in that the issues that arose were out with my jurisdiction and I will not have my service criticised for something that was out with my responsibility. I think that would be very unfair," he said.

See: No Charges Over Special Branch Heist

(BMcC/JM)